SERIE: TOPICS IN CLINICAL RESEARCH AND METHODOL OGY

SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION: THE ART OF PREPARING AND PRESENTING SCIENTIFIC RESULTS Comunicação científica: a arte de preparar e apresentar resultados científicos Ludovic Saint-Félixa,b, Alexandre Vaz Machadoc, Monique Scalcoa, Valdenize Tizianid, Rivadávio Amorima

This article is part of a special series designed to help authors in the process of scientific writing and communication. The objective of the study was to provide tools and strategies to prepare and achieve effective forms of oral communication, especially related to posters and oral presentations. A non-systematic literature research (PubMed/Web of Science) was performed to retrieve relevant data about how to prepare posters, oral presentation and how to control anxiety caused by oral speeches. In addition, a brief overview of innovative and recent digital tools is also provided. The scientific literature proves some interesting recommendations for preparing a good poster or a slide show and to avoid public speech anxiety as well. A list of available digital tools for such

ABSTRACT preparation was also disclosed. The rules for oral or poster communication differ from those related to manuscript writing. The quality of oral scientific communication can be improved by following such rules. KEYWORDS: posters; health communication; anxiety; scientific communication and diffusion.

Este artigo é parte de uma série especial que foi desenvolvida para auxiliar autores no processo da redação científica e comunicação. O estudo teve o objetivo de fornecer ferramentas e estratégias para preparar e alcançar formas efetivas de comunicação oral, especialmente para pôsteres e apresentações orais. Realizou-se uma pesquisa não-sistemática da literatura (PubMed/Web of Science) para levantar dados relevantes sobre como preparar pôsteres, apresentação oral e como controlar a ansiedade causada por apresentações em público. Além disso, também é fornecido um breve resumo de inovações e ferramentas digitais

RESUMO recentes. As regras para a comunicação oral ou pôster diferem daquelas relacionadas à escrita do manuscrito. A qualidade da comunicação científica oral pode ser melhorada seguindo tais regras. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: pôsteres; comunicação em saúde; ansiedade; comunicação e divulgação científica.

aPost-Graduation Program in Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Universidade de Brasília (UnB) – Brasília (DF), Brazil. bCentro Nacional de Recursos Genéticos, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa) – Brasília (DF), Brazil. cPost-Graduation Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Medicine, UnB – Brasília (DF), Brazil. dCenter of Learning and Research, Hospital da Criança de Brasília José Alencar (HCBDF) – Brasília (DF), Brazil.

Correspondence data Ludovic Saint-Félix – Pós-Graduação em Ciências Médicas, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Brasília, Campus Darcy Ribeiro – Asa Norte – CEP: 70910-900 – Brasília (DF), Brasil – E-mail: [email protected] Received on: 02/08/2017. Accepted on: 03/31/2017 DOI: 10.5327/Z2447-211520171700008

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INTRODUCTION research and its results. One key point of posters is to be The transfer of knowledge is one of the most challenging “self-explaining”: readers should be able to clearly understand tasks faced by scientists around the world and in all fields of them only by reading. The first author generally presents the research. One of the major points that contributes to such poster during poster sessions in scientific conferences and difficulty is the heterogeneity of the audience, which may meetings. Since the speaker is directly facing the public, it is be consisted by peer researchers, company staff, or even the a good way to have an immediate feedback from specialists general public.1 According to Polit and Hungler, “the most and experts. Posters can also be used for general communi- brilliant piece of work is of little value to the scientific com- cation to the public, students etc. Considering that a poster munity unless that work is known”.2 session can gather up to several hundreds of presentations, Therefore, the diffusion of research results is essential for each poster must be “attractive” to catch the attention of the researchers and clinicians. Above all, it must be pointed out audience. Hence, the layout of posters can be as important that it is also an ethical and civic obligation.3 There are several as the scientific messageper se.8,9 Recently, some scientific types of scientific communication at the knowledge transfer events provide the required structure to show digital versions scenario, such as oral communication and poster presenta- of posters (iPoster) on screens. tion.1,4 It is noteworthy that oral communication can lead to high levels of anxiety with great impact on the quality of A poster is not a research paper speech.5 Moreover, the formatting and clarity of the support Research articles and posters share some common rules, material are critical for success in captivating the audience since their major goal is to transfer scientific knowledge. and transferring the scientific message.6 However, articles can be read several times to be under- As facing an audience can seem to be an overwhelming stood and all data may be accessed again whenever neces- experience, this manuscript aims to support researchers and sary, which is not the case of posters. One of the challenges clinicians in preparing a clear poster or oral presentation. when creating a poster is to decide which parts of the research The main obstacles encountered and their solutions will be are critical to be described and those that are not essential.8 specified. Using this article should help to achieve an effec- Generally, a poster focuses on the background, the research tive scientific communication. Strategies will be detailed for questions, the results and the conclusion. The methods sec- the following points: tion is important, but it should not be as detailed as in a sci- 1. How to prepare a good poster; entific article. Nonetheless, if the goal is to publicize a new 2. How to prepare a good oral presentation; developed technique, details and innovations related to it are 3. Which digital tools can be used in scientific of utmost relevance and must be presented. Considering that communication. the poster is a concise form of communication, some of the parts of research articles are not always important: abstract, This article is meant as a tool to convey a clear scientific references, acknowledgments and logotypes are generally message when presenting a poster or giving an oral pre- not required in a poster and must be avoided or reduced at sentation. Undoubtedly, good communication depends on a minimum. However, some conferences impose to observe good research bases, such as an appropriate research ques- certain requirements, especially the dimensions of the poster. tion, well-designed methodology and accurate analyses of In some situations, the logotypes, references and even a tem- the results.7 plate can be required. Knowing the audience helps to define A non-systematic research was carried out on PubMed the best approach so that information can be transferred and Web of Science databases to retrieve articles about sci- successfully. For instance, the audience of a meeting gen- entific oral communication and speech anxiety. The keywords erally consists of specialists in the field of research, so the used were “poster”, “poster presentation” “oral communica- transferred knowledge should be very specific. On the other tion”, “slideshow”, “speech anxiety”. hand, for viewers such as students, scholars of other areas or non-scientific professionals, the results must be presented in How to prepare a good poster a more didactic format. “Less is more” is an important clue to take into account What is a poster and when to do it? while preparing a poster.10 A clear poster should never be Posters are big pieces of paper or fabric cloth (large crowded and part of it should remain blank.9,11 The amount of variety of sizes) that are hung on a vertical surface. They text should be limited and long phrases avoided. Clear graph- are meant to quickly convey information about an area of ics, images and diagrams, with a short explanation convey

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information better than large blocks of text. Finally, it is not The colors of the poster are crucial for the attractiveness uncommon to find posters containing pixelated images and of the poster. A black and white poster will be dull and bor- graphics with low resolution. ing. On the other hand, an excessively colorful poster can be confusing. The right middle is to use a combination of Formatting of a poster four colors: a dark one (usually black) for the text, a light The formatting of the poster includes the selection one (usually white) for the background and two other colors. of fonts, size of the text, diagrams and colors. Bad for- The background can also be an image linked to the topic. matting can quickly tire the brain out, and will certainly The two other colors should be used in order to draw boxes, compromise the interest of the expected visitors. A good forms and to color the diagrams. Tones of blue and green formatting will attract and make viewers curious, even if are calming colors and are quite popular in communication. the results of are not the most striking in the poster ses- Red, orange or yellow are appealing and can be used to high- sion. Therefore, some critical aspects related to formatting light data.9 The contrast and tones between two adjacent must be mentioned. The poster should be divided into two colors should be adapted. For example, using white and yel- to four equal columns. The number and width of the col- low or complementary colors causes much strain on the eyes. umns depends on the dimensions of the poster. In fact, Furthermore, think of adjusting the saturation and bright- organizing the data in long lines creates an obstacle to ness of the colors to embellish the poster. Chart 1 summa- a good reading and to focus. The most logical flow is to rizes common mistakes when preparing a poster and some organize the information from top to bottom and from recommendations to avoid them. left to right. Images and text must be aligned. This is a critical point for the beauty of the poster. Revision and impression Only the title and the list of authors should be placed Just like a research manuscript before submission, the first at the top and can comprise the entire width of the poster. draft of the poster must be carefully revised and accepted by The title must be short, precise, and informative and clear.9 co-authors and main investigator.8,12 Interestingly, people not An attractive title can be formulated as a question or as a news- directly involved to the research or researchers from other papers title, no more than two lines. The title can be written areas can provide important feedback about the flow, typos, in uppercase and/or bold or written in a thick font — which coherence and layout. are generally named “black” or “bold”. Title size should be While a poster will look like a masterpiece on the from 60 to 80 points, depending on the font and length of the computer monitor, be careful of its quality when printed. title. The list of author and affiliations should be written in a Some institutions and universities offer cheap service for regular font, using a smaller size (45 to 35 points). The use of printing, but its quality can be low. Printing services are two typefaces can help to distinguish sections of the poster usually available before international meetings but are or to highlight some specific information. Nonetheless, more than two of those can be confusing. For example, one type- Chart 1 Common mistakes when preparing a poster. face could be used to write the title, list of authors, sections Mistakes What to do? and main text, and another typeface for the description of Elements not Divide the poster into columns. diagrams and illustrations. Some typefaces are good choices, aligned such as Arial, Caslon or Helvetica. Other typefaces must be Large blocks Replace with graphs, flowcharts. avoided for being fanciful (Comic Sans, Jokerman) or too of text common (Times New Roman, Calibri). Fonts like Century Use two colors plus black and white. Gothic and Futura have round and similar letters which are Green and blue are calming and Excessive colors difficult to be distinguished from one another. The poster commonly used. must be clearly legible from a three-meter distance, even in Red, orange and yellow to highlight data. places with dim light. Illegible Favor Arial, Caslon or Helvetica. Important information, such as results, can be highlighted typefaces 24 points type or more. using boldface. In scientific posters, the italic type must be Long / confuse Continuous and appropriate practice / reserved for official nomenclatures (gene names, species explanation presentation should not exceed 10 minutes. binomial name, mathematical and physical constants…). Pollution of Keep in blank 40% of the The minimal point size to be used in a poster is 24, but the the layout total poster surface. use of even bigger point sizes is recommended.8,11

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more expensive. Most posters are printed on paper, but according to the audience. The second step is to retrieve fabric cloth is another available option. Fabric cloth post- references. It is generally better to use recent specific refer- ers can be more suitable for long trips (they will neither ences. The length of the presentation should always be kept require a poster tube nor crease).8 in mind. Usually, a single slide requires one minute to be Before attending a poster session, it is a good idea to presented, but some cases can escape the rule. For example, print an A4 paper version or summary of the research to the presentation of the opening slide can be longer than be distributed to the public, since some researchers could one minute, as the speaker must present themselves and have specific interest in your research. Business cards are the topic of the presentation. The explanation of a compli- useful tools for networking as well.8 Keep in mind that cated mechanism within a slide will certainly require more poster sessions create an interesting and unique atmosphere than one minute. The speech must be concise and clear, it to promote scientific collaboration and to be in touch with is useless to present partial data. a possible employer. There is more flexibility regarding the use of colors, length and typefaces during oral presentation. However, some rec- During the poster session ommendations are important: The public should be able to understand the poster in 1. avoid certain typefaces ( Jokerman, Comic Sans); about 5 minutes by themselves. However, the author should 2. respect combinations of colors (not using comple- be able to give detailed explanation which should not exceed mentary colors together); 10 minutes. It is of great importance to practice several times 3. use bright colors to highlight key aspects; the oral speech to respect the allotted presentation time, to 4. choose no more than two typefaces for the slideshow. master the content of the poster and to avoid speech anxiety. Eye contact, smiling and greeting can improve social interac- Visual outfit must be as simple as possible. Long blocks of tion and make the public curious about the poster. However, text should be avoided, except in cases of utmost importance the author should let the public free and comfortable to read (i.e., precise/detailed definitions, law citation). When writing the poster alone by standing at the side of the poster. If any sentences cannot be avoided, one slide should not contain question is raised, the authors should thank the inquiry and more than eight lines and each line should not contain more be confident to clarify the points. than six words.6 Chart 2 sums up some common mistakes made when preparing an oral presentation and slideshow. How to prepare a good oral presentation Overcoming the stress What is and when to perform an oral presentation? Speech anxiety is the fear of speaking facing a public. It is Oral presentations are more common than poster pre- a common phobia, that can be ranked first within the group of sentations and generally allow transmitting a broader set of social phobias.14 It is an important obstacle for oral communi- knowledge. They take place in meetings, laboratory reunions, cation, impacting the clarity of the speech and causing physical journal clubs, workshops and many other scientific situations. distress. In addition to that, this phobia can worsen when the The duration of oral presentations has great variability: from speakers have to communicate using their non-native language.5 5 minutes (shortest ones) to hours of speech, in some cases. Slideshow and/or audio equipment are powerful aids to improve the quality of the oral presentation. Although dis- Chart 2 Common mistakes when preparing oral presentations. pensable, a slideshow presentation will improve the compre- Mistakes What to do? hension of the message. Oral presentations rely on visual and Long blocks Replace with graphs, images, videos. 13 verbal learning. The direct interaction between the speaker of text Use key-words and short sentences. and the audience allows a clear understanding of the mes- Too long Reduce the amount of information. sage and to dispel any doubt. presentation 1 slide = 1 minute. Preparing the presentation Take more time to explain key concepts. Too short The first step is to make a brainstorm related to the topic presentation Rethink the purpose or the message of the presentation. and the key elements that will be approached. As for the Divergent speech Use the slideshow only to support the speech. poster, it is important to know the public and their back- and slide content ground, in order to adjust the complexity of the presentation

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Fortunately, some techniques can be used to ameliorate or min- application can read QR codes and convert it to its useful imize the effects of anxiety. Regular “training” helps improv- object. The linked object is commonly a webpage, a text, a ing the oral skills and self-confidence.5 Short presentations in video or an image. Diverse information can be linked by a front of coworkers or fellow students is one important aid to QR code. Complementary data can be linked in the QR control the phobia. Participating in “Journal Clubs” is a good code, yet it should not contain any data necessary for the way to give regular oral presentations. All participants have comprehension of the poster. The QR code can also house to frequently choose and present a research article in front of a digital version of the poster or provide information about coworkers. Another efficient technique in surmounting anxiety the research team and its research projects. A great deal of is the self-visualization. It consists in mentally simulate all the websites offer to create personalized QR codes. steps of the presentation, from its preparation to its outcomes. The speaker can be greatly motivated for the preparation by Software and applications visualizing it. The visualization of the outcomes (questions, Although many people use Microsoft PowerPoint to cre- material issues) makes the speaker ready for any eventuality or ate their posters, there are many others modern application question. Practice and visualization should help the speaker to programs to reach amazing results. Microsoft Publisher is an avoid anxiety on the long and mid-term.15 interesting option for such task. Numerous features allow the aligning of text and graphs, even around irregular shapes. It also Digital tools allows adjusting any size of poster and margins. Posters can be created thanks to other free programs, such as PosterGenius, Videos Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, OpenOffice Draw and others. Videos can be considered the new researcher’s allies and For oral presentations, one of the most used software is are commonly used as supplementary data in articles to show Microsoft PowerPoint. Some free programs are available for live mechanisms, especially for microscopic observations. slide show creation, such as Apache OpenOffice Impress, It is an innovative way not only to communicate results, but Beamer, Libre Office Impress or NeoOffice Impress. Online also to illustrate protocols. In this context, the Journal of tools like Prezi or Google Slides are also commonly used. Visualized Experiments ( JoVE) is a peer-reviewed online Nonetheless, these internet tools can display a public version journal specialized in “video articles”, where all the parts of of the slideshow. They should never be used when unpub- a classical manuscript article are presented as videos. JoVE lished or subject to secrecy data are to be presented. Before offers detailed instructions of scientific experiments and dis- an oral presentation, be sure that the material needed will cussion about any troubleshooting.16 be available (video projector, computer). When presenting Videos can also be indirectly integrated in posters — in the slideshow on another computer than the one used for the form of a Quick Response code (QR code) or directly preparing it, be careful that the file format of the presenta- inside presentations. However, the length of the videos must tion will be compatible with the available software. be taken into account when integrating in oral presentation. Many raster graphic programs allow composing and Videos can support but not replace the speech. Complex editing images and graphs. The most famous one is Adobe mechanisms, like molecular mechanisms, can be presented Photoshop, but its price and complexity can be rebuffing. in 3D computer graphics animations, but require an ani- There are other common free programs like PhotoFiltre, mation design team and several months of work. A quite Corel Painter, GIMP. The quality of images is better in famous video presenting a series of molecular complexes is PNG or TIFF format. Other image formats can lose qual- “The Inner Life of the Cell”, created by the animation com- ity after compression or impression. Online tools such as pany XVIVO, for Harvard University.17 Research teams with Mind the Graph (Mindthegraph.com) have a scientific human and financial resources should think of videos as a image database and allow creating scientific infographics new communication form.16 that can be included in posters, slide shows or articles, and do not require specific knowledge in design. The Internet Quick Response codes application Adobe Color (color.adobe.com) can help mak- QR codes are 2D barcodes used to store data through an ing a choice of color set for a poster or slide show. Several attached object. They can be personalized with images, col- options in the application allow choosing a scheme of five ors and shapes, and therefore are particularly versatile and colors and exporting this theme to other Adobe applica- can be easily integrated to the layout of a scientific poster. tion programs. Chart 3 lists useful applications for each Most mobile phones equipped with a camera and an adapted task when creating a poster or slideshow.

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Chart 3 Useful software and applications to produce posters of the scientific message. Both poster and oral presentations and slideshows. respond to common rules. Internet Use Application software The quality of poster and oral presentation can be improved applications by respecting some steps. The aim of the presentation and the Microsoft Publisher, Create a logical flow must be clearly defined. Recent references must PosterGenius, Adobe Illustrator, poster OpenOffice Draw be retrieved to illustrate the speech. It is useful to know the background of the public to adapt the level of the presentation. Microsoft PowerPoint, OpenOffice Create a Prezi, Google Impress, Beamer, Libre Office The quality of the visual layout of the presentation is critical slideshow Slides Impress, NeoOffice Impress for its attractiveness and comprehension. Finally, a well-trained Compose and Adobe Photoshop, PhotoFiltre, Mind the speaker should be able, at long term, to overcome speech anxiety. edit images Corel Painter, GIMP Graph Choose color Adobe Color theme ACKNOWLEDGMENT Ludovic Saint-Félix thanks the Committee for the Development of Higher Education Personnel – Capes (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – FINAL CONSIDERATIONS Brazil) for the scholarship received to produce this manu- Poster and oral presentations are meant to quickly and script. We thank Cindy Morris for her precious advice. efficiently disseminate the results and/or scientific interest of a research question. However, they conform to different rules from scientific articles. This can lead to mistakes in creating CONFLICT OF INTERESTS poster and slideshows, which can lead to the misunderstanding The authors report no conflict of interests.

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